


Ode to Mortality: An Unrelenting Truth

by AshVee



Series: Ode to Mortality [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Minor Character Death, Pain off the starboard bow.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 01:44:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7665490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshVee/pseuds/AshVee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor is Immortal, and it never occurred to him that what he loved the most was beautifully perishable. A Thor-Centric one-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ode to Mortality: An Unrelenting Truth

**Author's Note:**

> This hurts me. It might hurt you.

Thor had never really considered the possibility of death as the mortals. The gods lived for so long that they simply faded into a sleep or were lost in a glorious battle, their song lasting so long after they'd gone that it lacked the resounding finality of mortal fatality.

No, with his nearly impenetrable armor and the skin underneath as hard and unyielding as most metals, he never considered himself mortal in the slightest.

Thor Odinson was convinced he was immortal. Which was probably true, all things considered. The problem lay in those around him. He was convinced those around him were as immortal as he. The thought had come so naturally that he wasn't sure when it first occurred, just that he had never expected to one day find his Jane sitting on what the humans calls a sofa with a tub of that frozen cream in her lap, eyes wet with tears.

He hadn't even known the words she'd uttered between sobs, and all he knew was that this cancer had somehow offended Jane more deeply than anything ever had.

He watched her weaken, waiting for her to slip into the deep sleep of healing. She never did. The sleep she slipped into was final, and it robbed him of her almost while he wasn't looking. He begged the All-Father for weeks after, because surely, there had to be some old magic, some deep magic that could fix this...this all encompassing pain. There was nothing.

So, Thor had forsaken his father, his mother, his entire universe, and returned to the earth that his Jane had so completely loved. She was not there any longer, but there was that marble square, the monument to her carved with the words of some poet. Maybe that poet could give words to his pain.

There was a truth there, something to be learned, and a few days later, he could see it clearly. He was Immortal. He would live forever, far out lasting everything in his life. The Mortal.

It was, perhaps, the saddest and most assuring thing that he had ever learned in his life. There would be days, afterward, when he debated leaving the earth behind. Leaving it to its death and decay, to the rotting bodies beneath the soil. Except...there was a beauty in things that were perishable.

A beauty and an unrelenting truth.

A truth the All Father had told him that day, when he'd gone to plead for the life of Jane Foster.

"Father, surely there is something that can be done. The power of the-"

"My son, when I forbade you from returning to the Earth, it was not because I was cruel. This is the nature of humanity." Odin sat upon his throne, hand running regally through his beard.

"Then this fate will befall them all?" Thor asked, desperation and heartache welling into his gut. The death of all that he loved would be damning, far more damning that he could ever survive.

"Yes." The All Father said simply, and just like that, Thor could see all of their deaths.

The Man of Iron would surely be the first to go, his mind told him. There was already grey at his temples. Then perhaps Doctor Banner, if the Hulk would allow him death. Then who? His mind agonized. The Black Widow? Hawkeye? The Captain? His heart would not survive that much sorrow.

He shook himself of the pain then, reminding his agonized heart that Jane Foster was waiting, and even if she was to fade into nothingness, he would be there with her when she simply ceased to breath.

So he had, and each day that he lived on without her, he made himself the recurring promise. His companions would fade and die, and he would be there when they succumbed to their mortal fragility.


End file.
